Together Again?
by Alan Bates
Summary: Cloud and Aeris in the world of FFtactics. That's all you need to know..


Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
  
This story is based on the part of the game where Cloud encounters the unnamed flowergirl (that everybody knows is Aeris. Admit it.) and was created in two days for a contest on another site. I hope you enjoy it.  
  
  
  
  
Together Again?  
  
  
Ramza, Alma, Orlandu, Beowulf, and Agrias were all gathered around the breakfast campfire outside of Zarghidas Trade city arguing over the tactics for the final assault as none of them really agreed on the methods that they should use.   
  
"Excuse me... Cloud. You said you were a soldier. Could you get over here? " Ramza called over his to the most recent addition to the team, eager to get someone that would agree with him. Cloud got up from the rock he was sitting on and grudgingly trudged over to the group.   
  
"Okay, now how's this look? After the battle, we'll start on getting you home to your own time again.." Ramza both asked and promised him while drawing various lines and X's in the dirt with a stick. All eyes were on the spiky haired man. He would be the decision-maker. Cloud didn't understand a thing in the diagram. Nor did he really care to. He glanced back over his shoulder at the city in the distance.  
  
"You all right" Alma asked him noticing his troubled expression.   
  
"Sorry, my mind was...elsewhere." He said, pausing to examine a wildflower at his feet. "Listen...can I have some time off here? You're not going to be needing me anytime soon are you?" The others looked puzzled by his request. Only Alma seemed to understand. She nudged Ramza in the ribs signaling him to agree.  
  
"Yeah. Go on ahead. We will still be here at camp when you get back." He flicked his eyes over to his sisters seeing if he said the right thing or not. When she gave him no signs of a mistake, he turned back to Cloud. "Care to explain why you're leaving us?" Cloud had already gotten to his feet and started walking away in the direction of the city.   
  
"It's Valentine's day." He called without even looking back.   
  
Orlandu shrugged his shoulders looking around "what's a 'Valentine's day? Somekind of obscure cultural thing?"  
  
Cloud stopped on his way into the city to pick a bouquet of flowers from the field. Granted, he knew he didn't have her touch with them but he was quite proud of his arrangement. It took him hours of aimlessly wandering the city before finding her. She stood on the street corner with a basket of flowers in her hand. She saw him looking at her and walked across the street to his position.  
  
"Would you like to buy a flower it's...oh. It's you again. Hello." She said remembering several days ago when he had looked strangely at her and then ran away. She had to admit he was cute. And there was just something about him....   
  
"Hi. Aeris." He nervously spoke producing the bouquet of flowers from behind his back. She looked up and down the street, but it was all an act. He knew her name. She wasn't surprised nor did she worry. Somehow it seemed right.   
  
"Nobody has ever brought flowers to ME." She took them from him and placed them in her basket, separate from all the others. "Thank you."   
  
"yeah. Ummm.... are you doing anything today? I mean, would you like... to do something? With me?" The spiky haired man said absentmindedly kicking the dust at his feet. The flowergirl nodded sheepishly, "I...I think I'd like that. Don't ask me why but I trust you for some reason. I just need to put my basket at home and get ready. Could you meet me back here in about an hour or so?"   
  
"Nothing I'd rather do" Cloud said, mentally kicking himself for how dumb that must have sounded to her. She smiled and bobbed her head and then was off down the street. Cloud waited and watched her go before heading off himself to try to remember where the candy store he saw on the way into town was.   
  
As he walked along, many thoughts flooded his mind. He had watched Aeris die right before him and this was a whole new world, hundreds of years before she would have even been born. But yet, she talked like Aeris. She looked like Aeris. She sounded like Aeris. She even had the same name. But if it was Aeris, what was she doing here? And why couldn't she remember him? The last two questions where the ones that troubled him the most.   
  
Aeris washed and braided her hair sweetly humming to herself. When she realized how silly she was acting, she chided herself. She was acting like this was the first time she had ever been asked out on a date. She'd...hmmm...for some reason she couldn't remember who she'd been out with before. That wasn't like her at all. She knew she wouldn't just go out with anyone, it would have to have been someone important to her. Finishing her hair, she flipped though the outfits in her closet. Finally she decided on a frilly pink number that she had bought on a whim and never worn.   
  
Cloud wandered the streets stopping at whatever shop caught his eye, in hopes of finding something that resembled a Valentine's card. Nothing. No one had ever even heard of Valentine's day in this world he was trapped in. But the day was important to him. And he knew in his heart, somehow it was important to her.  
  
Aeris studied herself in the mirror one last time before putting her flowers into water and heading out the door.  
  
Cloud nervously glanced up and down the street. He brushed his hands through his hair in hopes of fixing whatever the last few weeks of neglect had done to it. He studied the things he'd picked up for her. A necklace with a small heart shaped pendant, a teddy bear, and a small box of chocolates. He glanced down the street in hopes of seeing her. The bear was too much. He hid it in the brushes next to where he stood and walked several feet away from it. By the time Aeris arrived, he was as ready as he ever expected to be. Which was not much.  
  
Cloud hid the gifts behind his back. She seemingly appeared out of nowhere and Cloud was immediately taken back by her style of dress. Other than the hoop skirt, it was almost identical to her normal dress....Or rather the dress he was used to seeing her in. In his time. The thoughts confused Cloud every bit as much as they did encourage him.   
  
"Are you ready to go on our date?" she asked him. Cloud gulped and blinked. How long had he been staring at her. He had almost forgotten about the things he bought her. They seemed petty and trivial but he presented them anyway.  
  
"These are for you."  
  
Aeris took the necklace in her hand and held it up to admire in the light. Smiling she put it into her pocket. "I'm not big into jewelry." She explained. She then opened the box of candy without taking it from Cloud's hand, she sampled a few pieces before taking the box and setting it down on a nearby post. "Listen I really appreciate this and it's not that I don't like you, but,. And it's not like me to ask either, but why did you want to ask me out?"   
  
Cloud shrugged his shoulders. This wasn't going to be easy to explain; not that he understood it himself. "Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time where was a man who only thought he was noble knight. In truth he was pretty much a jerk. He didn't care about anything, especially himself. Now one day it happened that he stumbled on a beautiful princess and he fell hard for her. In time they grew to love each other...."  
  
"And they lived happily ever after?"   
  
"...and she died. She died to save the Planet. But before she did she told him that she'd return. She never did."   
  
Aeris looked at him with uncertain eyes. "It sounds.... familiar, but I'm not sure I understand." Cloud gave her an obviously faked smile.   
  
"Maybe it's best that way. So, what exactly is there to do in this town?"  
  
"Well there's a park, or we could go to a play..." Aeris started eager to list all the popular activities of her town.  
  
"a play's perfect." He said remembering their first date. (that is, if that really was the same woman.)  
  
Cloud was barely even aware of the play as they sat together and watched. Something about a man that traveled the world over to find a girl that he had only met in his dreams. Rather romantic, from what he saw. But he wasn't paying attention to it at all. Cloud's attention was on his date. At some point she had wrapped her arms around his, gripping it in an affectionate hug.   
  
After the curtain fell for the final time, neither of them wanted to leave the comfort they had found in each other. It took the ushers to finally force them to leave.   
  
"That was a beautiful play, Cloud" She said as they walked out. It had been much longer than he had thought, as it was almost sunset. "You've taken me somewhere nice, now I'd like to take you somewhere."   
  
Aeris led him to the edge of town and beyond. She hiked her dress up slightly, revealing more of her legs than Cloud had seen the women of this time do, in order to maneuver better through the overgrown grass and up a steep hill.  
  
Finally they arrived at the top of the hill. There was a small patch of flowers, a large stone and nothing else. Aeris sat down on the stone and patted the spot beside her signaling Cloud to sit down as well, which he did.  
  
"This is where you wanted to take me?" Cloud asked.   
  
"Aeris smiled and pointed at the sky. "There's no better place to watch the sunset." Cloud looked over in the direction she pointed, were the sky had already started to turn red. "I've never brought anyone else up here...I don't know why I brought you either. This has always been my special private place. Where I could get away from everything."  
  
"Earlier, after the play, you called me by name. I've never told you my name."   
  
"I just knew. The same way one knows things in a dream. I don't know if I'm the same girl you fell in love with or if you're the thing that's been missing from my life but..." Aeris said her voice trailing off. "You knew my name too."   
  
"Earlier you wanted to know why I asked you out. The story I told you earlier. It was a true story. The woman's name was Aeris."   
  
"I think I understand now. But you left something out." Her voice once again took on the playful tone she had first shown him in another world.  
  
Cloud looked at her carefully. Fully aware of how close they had gotten to each other. Both emotionally and physically.  
  
"All fairy tales are supposed to have happy endings," she said moments before her lips met his.   
  
  
When the sun rose again the next day, Cloud left the flowergirl with a promise. He returned to fight along side Ramza and the others, but he didn't worry about going home anymore.   
  
He was home. 


End file.
